Watch out, JK's Beedle is about

Hundreds of Harry Potter fans packed into bookshops across London early today in a bid to be the first in the world to buy JK Rowling's latest book.

As the clock turned midnight, the first copies of The Tales of Beedle the Bard were sold and a 19-year-old German student was the first to get her hands on the collection of fairy tales.

Christine Berger travelled from Stuttgart to Waterstones in Piccadilly for the launch. She said: "I have been transfixed with the books for years, I forget about everything else when I read them."

She joined a party for 500 devoted Harry Potter fans who could not wait to buy the latest Rowling book.

Larry Ivy, a 60-year-old Texan travel agent, travelled from his home in Fort Worth. He runs Harry Potter tours in Britain. He said: "This is just more Harry Potter magic and it may be the last time we get a new book released. My daughter got me into them and now I take people on tours all over Britain showing them where parts of the Harry Potter films were shot."

The Tales of Beedle the Bard were fairy tales which featured in the final Harry Potter book and helped defeat his nemesis Lord Voldemort.

The book was published after pressure from fans who wanted to read an integral part of the final piece of the Potter jigsaw, although the boy wizard himself does not appear. In the sleeve notes of an auctioned copy Rowling said writing it had been "a wonderful way to say goodbye to a world I have loved and lived for 17 years".

Profits from sales will go to an east European children's charity chaired by Rowling, called Children's High Level Group, which aims to rehouse 100,000 Romanian children. Seven jewel-encrusted copies of the book were originally made and one was sold at a charity auction for £1.95 million.

The £6.99 version launched today is far slimmer than the usually thick Harry Potter tomes.

Laura Huff, 17, an American student from South Kensington, said: "My mum read me the first four books and I have been obsessed ever since."

Grayson Walton, 18, from Godalming in Surrey, said: "There was no way I was not going to be at the launch. When I heard about it, I moved heaven and earth to be here." Elizabeth Wood, a 16-year-old college student who had travelled from Rotherham in South Yorkshire, said: "The books are beautiful. Most of my friends make fun of me because I am so crazy about them."

At Borders in Charing Cross Road was university student Katrin Geyer of Vienna, who flew in from Austria. Katrin , 21, said: "I didn't want to have to wait longer than I had to. The flight only cost around £40 and I am going with my book and very happy."

Rowling will read extracts to children later in Edinburgh.